Rose has made some stupid mistakes in her life. But marrying Alisha wasn't one 🥺💕

A whole comic just because I wanted to draw Alisha in this outfit

It’s been a busy day BUT I DID IT here u go :3 the girlsssssss

Bamco be like

looked through my tales sketch folder and found these unused, so here you go

bamco be like. just dudes being bros, just gals being pals, what good friends.

tales of femslash week winter, day 2 “rapunzel”

Pulp Jazz: Twenty-First Century Groove Music (A Mixtape)

If you've been over on Aquarium Drunkard in 2024, you've probably noticed that Brent Sirota is currently killing it — with expertly curated mixes especially. Astral loitering, secret hemispheres, new age trips, Fourth World explorations, spacey fusion and beyond. And now — Pulp Jazz! I love this one.

Brent says: I called it pulp jazz a couple of times, not because it was cheap or disposable, but because it was so immediately gratifying. It draws on long-traduced, sometimes crassly commercial, musical forms—jazz-funk, exotica, new age, sci-fi schlock, lounge music and library—and channels it all into deeply funky, low-key psychedelic groove music. More than that, like the best pulp, it somehow comes out sexy as hell, slinky and dangerous.

A very cool collection of unearthly sounds — made even cooler by the fact that my own band Prairiewolf shows up in the mix! What a treat. There's a lot brewing for the 'wolf in the upcoming months, since you asked — a re-press of our debut LP, a brand-new LP in the works ... and gigs! Glorious gigs! Next month we'll be joining the cosmic traveling family band Tengger at Glob in Denver for what is sure to be a very heady night. And then, a few nights later, we're opening up for Rosali and Color Green at Globe Hall. Glob + Globe!? You better believe it. If you're in the area, advance tix are recommended! Tengger sold out the last time they were in town and — I'm calling it here — Rosali's new album is going to be HUGE.

Edsel Axle — Variable Happiness (Worried Songs)

Photo by Asia Harman

Variable Happiness by Edsel Axle

We’ve come to know the Philadelphia indie artist Rosali through her clarion Americana-tinged songwriting and the thumping primitivism of her punk trio the Long Hots. We have not, up to now, considered her closely as a guitar player, which is perhaps short-sighted since she does that in both bands. Here she brings the electric guitar up to the front, taking up a glove laid down by Bill Orcutt, Bardo Pond, Loren Connors and others. Over six tracks as Edsel Axle, she improvises jagged rock riffs and electrified acid folk, just her and a guitar and a four-track, but definitely plugged in.

Rosali’s band has a couple of other worthy guitar players in David Nance and James Schroeder, so one faulty assumption might be that the Neil Young-ish flavor on 2021’s No Medium came from them (Nance’s solo and band work leans that way as well). But here, by herself, and not burdened by the need to sing, Ms. Middleton demonstrates that she, herself, has a bit of the Crazy Horse fixation. These songs sound like the instrumental freakery between verses on Ragged Glory or Sleeps with Angels. The guitar carves out giant, resonating figures in the opener “Some Answer,” letting the long notes ring out, then splintering them into buzzing, disintegrating feedback hum. This opening salvo is the most rock and least folk leaning of the six, with a keening wail vibrating under lapping layers of distorted melody. You can hear bits of Loren Connors in the way rage and beauty coincide here, a roar in even the most tranquil, pensive moments. 

The title track runs a little cooler, building contemplative space out of steady picked patterns and resonating threads of melody. This one has the quiet assurance of certain Steve Gunn instrumentals, eschewing pyrotechnics for a clear, unobstructed line of sight. It’s also manifestly a solo piece, without looped or overdubbed embellishment. By contrast, “Come Down from the Tree” is denser and more dizzying, punctuated with loud, echoing chords and letting flurries of quicker notes linger in insect hives of buzzing overtones. It reminds me a bit of Bright, a band I hadn’t thought about in years, for its sun-dappled balance of clarity and mystery. If you look past the lack of voice and flute, you might also hear a little Bardo Pond here, the howl of feedback like an undertow beneath long-toned serenity.

These tracks are all relatively lengthy, all built around repeated motifs and without conventional song structure, yet they are consistently engrossing. There’s an abstract, chaotic beauty in these evolving compositions, the fire that you normally find between Rosali verses let loose on its own terms.

Jennifer Kelly

Day 5: Frog Prince(ss)

Late but It was mainly because I was doing a comic for this prompt. Mainly because I thought to myself “hey isn’t there a version of this story where the Princess changes the frog back because she threw him against a wall?” The answer is yes, Brothers Grim version ... of course its the brothers grim version.

"Stuck Inside a Cloud"

Original by George Harrison

Covered by Rosali

Its been 984780230 years

Rose is about to put down 'Oxyphenbutazone'

So, I made a Tales discord server. It’s probably a mess, but I’d be happy to have people join.

https://discord.gg/ac8UJqUk 

Rosali Live Preview: 4/18, Empty Bottle, Chicago

Photo by Asia Harman

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Isn't it remarkable that Destroyer's Dan Bejar, the king of obtuseness, managed to so deftly nail his description of Bite Down (Merge), the fourth album from indie rock musician Rosali? Bejar referred to Rosali's instrumental and lyrical evolution as sporting a "hard-won ease;" I couldn't help but come back to that phrase when listening to standout track "Hills on Fire". As Rosali Middleman gently sings validations like, "That color looks so good on you," her backing band, David Nance's Mowed Sound, hint at something darker, James Schroeder's guitars growing increasingly scraggly. Eventually, Middleman sings, "I can be hellish and awful, too / Anger built in my youth." It's a moment where you realize that Bite Down shows Rosali as wise in her reflective realism, while still avoiding cynicism and leaving room for hope.

Bite Down was written after Rosali moved from her long-time home of Philadelphia to North Carolina; it concerns physical and emotional change while remaining astonishingly present. That interplay is reflected in both her words and the band's instrumentation. Take "Rewind", an easygoing, earnest, romantic country rock song that sees the silver lining in bad times. Eventually, the band's subtle freak-outs yield effects that sound like someone attempting to whoosh back in time but being held back and reminded to live in the moment. On "Slow Pain", Middleman dives head first into her angst, atop steady, pattering drums from Kevin Donahue and Schroeder's restrained lead guitar. "Have you seen my grief? Hold it so I don't spill out," she sings. The song eventually lets you into Middleman's head with piercing guitars resisting being muted, as she describes, "Killing time with the slow pain." And the title track fights despair with Ted Bois' groovy keyboard lines and Megan Siebe's warm cello, Middleman reaching out for help: "I can't seem to bring myself ashore / Put aside your foolish pride / To move beyond the rising tide."

Photo by Harrison Martin

Sure, there are a few songs on Bite Down that center on moods more static: ennui ("Hopeless"), pain ("Is It Too Late"), even horniness (earworm opener "On Tonight"). But it all comes together on the building, burning closer "May It Be on Offer". "And I do wonder / And waste my life / No, I don't wonder / If I waste my life," Middleman sings, clarifying that she knows that "[sitting] for hours / Gazing at the light" is what most would consider bed rotting. As the song progresses, though--keyboard humming, guitars fluttering--Middleman's outlook is brighter. "There is hope upon me / There is reason to try," she sings, a hymnal, or maybe a lullaby, singing herself not to sleep but back to that hard-won ease.

Rosali plays the Empty Bottle tonight, with a backing band of Nance, Schroeder, and Donahue. Local indie rockers Fran open. Doors at 8 PM, show at 9. Tickets still available at time of publication.

"Hopeless" by Rosali https://ift.tt/9THkjO3

Rosali - Tulips, Fort Worth, Texas, May 16, 2022

People! In exactly one week, Rosali is kicking off her BITE DOWN Tour ... in Denver, of all places! As I think I mentioned, I'll be there, opening up the show with my band Prairiewolf. An honor, a privilege, etc. It's a stacked bill, with the great cosmic country rockers Color Green playing, too. There will be no better way to spend a Tuesday night in the Mile High City — I personally guarantee it. (And hey, if you want to come out, Prairiewolf has some tickets to sell that don't have any pesky extra fees. Get in touch if you want one!)

Bite Down, coming out on March 22, is Rosali's latest and, in my opinion, greatest LP. I've been describing it to people as Chrissie Hynde & Crazy Horse, which is probably a little on-the-nose, but I'll stand by it. With David Nance and co. providing backing that balances wild abandon with searing precision, it's an instant classic. It's also Rosali's first release on Merge Records, so I'm expecting her to be headlining much bigger venues very soon.

Don't take my word for it, here's Dan Bejar: "Bite Down makes me think about singers and bands that throw themselves hard into the storm, the way the Rosali quartet does. … The calm of her voice over top of the band’s raging—it is the emblem of songs that live to put themselves in harm’s way. But it’s not harm. It’s just that you have to play hard to get at these goods. The calm of Rosali’s voice, the straight talk of her inner search vs. the wildness of the band, the sonic storm she rides in on. That’s their sound."

Yes. And hey, click the link above to check out Rosali opening for Dan's Destroyer a few years back — a short/sweet set, a whole lotta lightning.